I decided to break into the mid-fire Lishan from 2011 first. I love the balance between roast and floral/buttery flavors. No hint of bitterness anywhere, and I could definitely use a lot more leaf than I did this time around. I agree with Ethan's review: despite the definite presence of roast, it's quite a bit lighter in both color and flavor than I was expecting. (This is not a bad thing!)

I was in the mood to finish off my bag of '04 aged oolong from Mad Monk tonight, but it turned out that there was barely any left. I decided to try my hand at blending, so I mixed in equal parts of that tea with some season's pick Yunnan black snail from Upton. Turned out pretty good--the smoke and creaminess from the oolong balanced the chocolate and malt of the Yunnan pretty nicely.

Drinking a jinxuan from Teamania.ch, thai tea in other words. And to my surprise, it's actually pretty good, especially when you know it's only about 15 euros/200g. It's a tea I would consider on drinking on a daily base, a tad too green perhaps. Curious about the roasted sample

2011 Gong Xiang Tribute Fragrance Dan Cong from TeaHabitat. Floral and lovely, with my TH Chao Zhou pot performing brilliantly as always. And I'm drinking from a new teacup today, from Mark Smalley, one that I fell in love with before it was fired, when he posted it to his flickr

Enjoying Lishan Cui Feng (light roast) winter 2012 from Origin Tea. In the mood for a "softer" cup of tea, I lowered the temperature a bit to get the flavor(s) delivered w/ a light touch. Success!I don't know whether Cui Feng is the name of the source or means "light roast", but I know it is good tea..

Yesterday I had the ~10 year old Baozhong from the Origin tea tasting... which was spectacular though died a little quick. Now trying my hand at the 1984. See notes going to be posted in the tasting topic.

'83 Baozhong I got from Camellia Sinensis a few years back. It says something about what I thought of it originally that I still have almost the full 100g left. However this session was rather nice with the exception of infusion #3 that had a very disagreeable sour note. So I'm leaving it my weekly rotation for now to see how it's doing. Maybe I won't have this anymore in a couple of months.

Moved on to teahabitat's 1993 wild hong yin after someone in chat mentioned that it was their favorite of the aged tasting set. On second visit I see what they like about it, but my favorite is still the 78 wild hong yin.

It's always interesting to me to discuss teas with other people, everyone's palette and what they like is so different. The 78 hong yin is not so great aroma wise, the first wiff I had when I opened the bag gave me a bad feeling about what was going to happen next. But then I brewed it ( again not liking the aroma much ) but once it was in my mouth, oh my - amazing mouth feel, round, 回甜 ( hui gan ), and wonderful aftertaste. It made my mouth water and awakened my senses. but still, the taste and aroma was not exceptional, pleasant and balanced, but not 'wow'. Someone else drinking this tea who didn't care about anything but taste or aroma might think 'meh, boring'.

Oolong again: a Rou Gui I bought from Jing Tea Shop several years ago, and when it didn't meet my preconceptions of a strong cinnamon flavor, it got shuffled to the back of the cupboard. This afternoon, though, it is coming through nicely with hints of spice in a warm sweet background, gentle and delicious.